In the mid-80's I was rejected by G.town but accepted to Harvard, MIT, Duke & several other top 20 schools. It was definitely already considered a very good, "cool" school then. I guessed that I didn't get in because a few other classmates from my small school were accepted, and they'd had different/more desirable hooks and maybe more demonstrated interest in G.town . . .

it wasn't a cake walk to get in, but all the higher tier schools were relatively easier in the 80s. Fewer applicants, fewer families able/willing to pay the tuition. But coming from MoCo with lots of kids applying from each school - you still would've had to have been in the top 10-15% in the class ranking in terms of GPA & SAT to get into G-town (or Penn). And fewer kids got higher GPAs and SATs then (grade/scoring inflation!) - which in some ways makes it easier now to get in relatively but more related to other factors.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Starting in the mid-80s, once the basketball program became really huge (Patrick Ewing era), it became a lot more difficult. I didn't get in in '92, despite being a legacy, National Merit Finalist and top 10% of my class.

Interesting. Where did you go to school? 1080 SATs was in the 50th percentile in my class with a 3.3 GPA and I got in for 1993.

1080? Really? I got rejected with a 1490 the year before!

1490? Really? Were you a convict?

Got rejected with a 1460 in the 80s. But it was for the School of Foreign Service. My friends who were not as good students got accepted to the nursing school.

Also rejected for SFS in '81. SATs were 1200. Offered a full ride at Rutgers in Scholars' Program, also accepted at Dickinson and Lehigh.

Got in in 1985. Acceptance rate was about 14 percent. Hoyas were big in basketball then (Patrick Ewing) so it was definitely on the radar.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Starting in the mid-80s, once the basketball program became really huge (Patrick Ewing era), it became a lot more difficult. I didn't get in in '92, despite being a legacy, National Merit Finalist and top 10% of my class.

Interesting. Where did you go to school? 1080 SATs was in the 50th percentile in my class with a 3.3 GPA and I got in for 1993.

1080? Really? I got rejected with a 1490 the year before!

1490? Really? Were you a convict?

Got rejected with a 1460 in the 80s. But it was for the School of Foreign Service. My friends who were not as good students got accepted to the nursing school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Starting in the mid-80s, once the basketball program became really huge (Patrick Ewing era), it became a lot more difficult. I didn't get in in '92, despite being a legacy, National Merit Finalist and top 10% of my class.

Interesting. Where did you go to school? 1080 SATs was in the 50th percentile in my class with a 3.3 GPA and I got in for 1993.

1080? Really? I got rejected with a 1490 the year before!

1490? Really? Were you a convict?

Anonymous wrote:Growing up in NJ, Georgetown was definitely hard to get into the late 80s

I went to SFS, other acceptances included Bowdoin, Middlebury, Chapel Hill, waitlisted at Dartmouth, rejected by Princeton and Brown

In the mid 70s I got accepted into Georgetown and Cornell, but was waitlisted at Saint Lawrence University. I'm laughing about that now but back then I thought maybe it was that St. Lawrence personal essay was about volunteering for National Ski Patrol and I figured they just thought I wanted to go there in order to ski. I was so dumb about applying to colleges, I mostly applied to places that sent a rep to my school. So I just happened to have a Georgetown catalogue and after really enjoying an advanced German 1 class in my senior year of high school I saw that GU had a specialized language school (which now has been absorbed into the college). So I applied to the Language and Linguistics School. I'm sure I got in based on the reference from my German teacher. Would never be accepted today.

But all in all I had no clue about colleges. I'm sure I would have loved Bowdoin or Middlebury but it never occurred to me to apply. But I learned a lot about falling in love with the idea of a place based on a catalogue. Georgetown so did not suit me. These days kids and their families are doing a lot more research and visiting a lot more. Wish I'd done that back in the day!

Anonymous wrote:^

=

No it was not hard. You just had to be

1. UMC or rich
2. White
3. Above average intelligence

hahaha

no

Who wants to bet some douche in OP's office is attempting to one up someone or throw their weight around about being a "scholar" in the 80s who went to Georgetown?




OH DCUM strivers. You never fail to disappoint with your ridiculousness.

Growing up in NJ, Georgetown was definitely hard to get into the late 80s

I went to SFS, other acceptances included Bowdoin, Middlebury, Chapel Hill, waitlisted at Dartmouth, rejected by Princeton and Brown

Georgetown is the dream of every insufferable student council try-hard. It's like a Duke for wonky kids that aren't smart enough for Duke or an Ivy.

I guess because I'm older Georgetown has never seen "all that" to me. I had classmates go there in the late 70s who were somewhat above-average at a typical FCPS HS in the pre-TJ era. At some point in the 90s, Georgetown admissions started to get more competitive and the admissions director was quoted locally as saying GU didn't want to look at any kids from NoVa public high schools who didn't go to TJ. In recent years, my kid's non-TJ public in FCPS has been sending 2-5 kids to GU per year. They are very good students, but not Ivy material, and similar to the kids getting into U. Va. My overall impression is that the school isn't quite sure how to present itself, and maybe it still appeals the most to some starry-eyed kids from Arkansas or Kansas who think going to school in DC would be a big deal.

Pp's right. It was much easier to get into top colleges back in the day. However, I do think that GU was not that competitive back when I went there in the 70s. When I told my relatives in northern Ohio that I was going to GU, unless they were Catholic, they thought I meant Georgetown College in Kentucky.

I don't know for sure the true reason it became more competitive but I noticed two things: 1) As a pp noted, John Thompson started coaching men's basketball, recruited Patrick Ewing, and the school became a national powerhouse in the 80s. 2) Scholars from the GU Center for Strategic and International Studies started showing up on the MacNeil-Lehrer Report on PBS. Both of these elevated the school's national profile. I know I would not have gotten in today!

But as interesting as it is to talk about me, tell us the truth, OP. You just know someone who went there and you think they're not the hot shot they pretend to be. Well, that's probably true of most people who got into elite colleges back in the day. It was a lot easier to get in.

If by earlier generation you mean up to the mid 1970s, college admissions was very different in those days and far less competitive, even at the Ivies. Many schools we now consider top notch colleges had much more flexible admissions and frequently accepted last minute applications if there was space available. The idea that you could call up in August, say I'm interested, dispatch your stats, and get an offer in the next few days was definitely doable at many schools.

Anonymous wrote:Was being Catholic a more important factor in the 80s?

One of my relatives went to Georgetown in an earlier generation. Changed his mind about the college he'd enrolled in. Applied in August for that fall. Got in and went.